The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-10-19
"moMEY cRANKsp AND COINS.
Some Rare Pieces That Have
Brought a Rare Price.

Money cranks," as they are called. or
people who have craze for old and rare
coins, are often willing to pay high price
Tor piece OF money which is rare.
old and difficult to obtain. A coin of which
there are buta few pieces in existence is cry
valuable in the eyes Of numismatists, who
often spend lifetime in collecting the old
currency and coin of the different nations.
A PRESS reporter, who called upon dealer
In American and foreign coins, Confederate.
Continental and Colonial notes and currency.
learned the following interesting facts: 81
have been about ten years in making my col
lection, which value very highly" said the
dealer. Il have men in different parts of the
world who are on the lookout for rare coin
for me, and with their help have succeeded
In making quite large collection"
AT what do you value your best coin?"
30, well, l don't know how much it is
worth, but l have had $50 offered for it, The
worth of it depends upon how much ''mon-
ey crank" wants it. The piece is a Bermuda
shilling Tor hogge penny, and was made be-
tween 1915 and 1920 A d. Many of the old
est coins, you know, contain no date, and
the only way to tell when they were made is
to ascertain when the sovereign, whose pro-
file is on the coin, reigned"
The old Bermuda shilling contains the
likeness of a hog, standing facing the left,
above which are displayed the Roman numer-
ais xxi" and the inscription Summer ISL
ands" On the other side is full-rigged
ship. under sail to the left, with flags flying
from each of her four masts. The coin
weighs III grains, and is very rare Old
Continental money is also rare. A four
pence was shown the writer. and on one
side was the following inscription:
56,l15. Four Pence. This bill shall pass cur
rent for -Four Pence, according TO an Act of Gen.
eral Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsyl-
kanla, passed the twentieth Day of March, in
the year One Thousand Seven Hundred ana Sew
t777. A, GRoAT.
On the other side, the words, ITO Counter
felt is DEATH" were printed. The old
Franklin cent, on one side of which the in
scription, mind Your Business" is con-
contained, is now much priced, and the Mas
sachusetts pine tree sixpence, dated 1862, is
worth from $40 to S25. Old Roman, Greek
and Chinese money is valuable, while a set
OF United States copper coins, from first to
last issue, is worth about 500. A piece of
Greek money, coined 1900 years B. c., was
shown the writer Confederate currency is
not valued very highly.
1T is curiosity, a desire to possess some
thing difficult to obtain that prompts many
to pay high prices for coin, and it is the rari
ty of piece of money that makes it valua-
ble," said the coin dealer.
What is the highest price, to your knowl-
edge, that coin ever sold for?"
AT present. numismatists are looking for
the old Liberty silver dollar, issued in 1904.
A piece of this money is very valuable now,
because only few are known to exist. One
Of these coins sold in this country, at auc-
ton, some time ago, for $1,000, the highest
price ever knew piece of money to bring.
Probably the best collection in this coun-
try, of United States and foreign coin, may
be seen at the Philadelphia mint.
THE first issue of the silver dollar in this
country, was in 1874, and one of those coin,
If it is in state of good preservation, which
makes rare money even more valuable than
1t otherwise would be, is worth about 5000"